Dream Tomorrow, Live Today, Cherish Yesterday

Mr. Big

Canon 5D Mark II, 14mm F/2.8, f/6.3, 1/15th, iso 1240

My wife and I visited the new Crocker Art Gallery in Sacramento this week. The Crocker has been around since the turn of the last century, but they recently added a huge new facility, a very modern one.

Our main objective was to see a personal collection of Wayne Thiebaud. Wayne is an internationally known painter, and just turned 90! He is Sacramento's best known artist. I had never seen his works in person.  Suffice to say I was pretty blown away.

I thought about him when blog commenter Cathy remarked that my aerial shot had a Thiebaud feel in this post.

Which is also how you feel when standing next to Mr. Big here! No, Mr. Big is not a Thiebaud piece. Some other fun artist. For shots like this, I put my camera down on the ground and just fire some shots, review my framing and adjust. I'm not getting down on the ground for this! I thought this one was kind of fun, and I like the other gallery viewer on the right for scale.

Click on the continue link or Mr. Big will smash you to bits!  Actually, I'll show you a couple Thiebaud pieces...

A movie review?

(If you told me that I'd do a movie review on this blog, I'd be surprised. If you told me it was going to be for this particular movie, I'd be stupified.) Michael Jackson is certainly one of the most enigmatic figures of the past 50 years.  He was born just two years after me, and probably like a lot of my readers, we grew up hearing his music and there were a lot of special songs. But with his general wackiness, the surgeries, the kid issues, saying it is hard to relate to him is an understatement. When this movie came out, my thought was "ugh, people still trying to make money with this crazy cat." Yesterday my son won tickets for the movie from a radio station, and asked me to go with him. I don't go to many movies.  I hate sitting through the trailers, and there's always some obnoxious SOB that ruins it for me.  So, I have a home theater! But anyway, "be a good cheer," my uncle always says - so off we went. And I'm glad I got to see it, and here is why. It's real. And so is he.  It's what goes on behind the scenes to craft a production of epic proportion. The cast of characters is really a great mix of people, and you can tell each one is a superstar on his or her instrument, or lighting, or whatever. The dancers are awesome. And really for the first time I can remember, you get to see Michael Jackson as a person. Ok, yes, a person with insane talent - every gene is his body was meant to be a musical writer and performer. And it's 96% music. Music being performed. And he's not trying to sing as if in a performance, he's holding back his voice. Again, very real.  There's just a tiny bit of preachiness, where he claims the planet is doomed, but other than that, all good! Worth 90 minutes of your time if you enjoy music being performed.

Winning the Lottery

Blue Line Gallery, Roseville CA

Canon 1D Mark III, 28-70mm F/2.8, 1/25th iso 800

We are fortunate in our town to have an arts program that is supported by the city and the residents. I have been involved with Roseville Arts (www.rosevillearts.org) for a couple of years.  Let me just say, "involved" in a very minor way compared to many dedicated people whose time investment makes the program what it is.

The point of this post is to tell everyone about this great event the group just put on.  I think it will be a fun read for you, but I'm also hoping some of you might be able to generate interest for a similar event, because this was a good one all the way around.  And I'm going to throw in a few fun pictures as well.

Click on the continue link to get into The Lottery.